Fire Island Gay Weddings Set Some New Traditions

The advent of gay weddings in New York has led to a plethora of choices for the discerning pair of fianceés or fiancés: we’ve written about Gilt City’s offer of a Del Posto wedding identical to one offered to straight couples, pre-marriage equality, and the so-called Pop-Up Chapel caters to the hip and the slackerish who want a quick celebration and a great story.

The longtime gay haven Fire Island, though, is offering its own way of celebrating with a series of options, hosted by the Fire Island Pines, for the couple who summers. Here are the most obvious examples, from the Fire Island Pines’s wedding packages on offer (with an extensive forthcoming marketing campaign), that gay weddings really will be different: amenities in various packages include day-of-ceremony facials and mani-pedis, a private ferry to the Pines with a crew made up of drag queens, or, in the “Classic Pines Package” a ceremony held on the deck usually occupied by High Tea (the nighttime party at the Pines), with underwear-clad bartenders serving from the bar. We’re hardly worried that the dignity of marriage, or whatever, is fading away (Larry King and Elizabeth Taylor have both done a number on that one)–but it is rather exciting to see nascent traditions shake themselves out!

“This September, we’re doing a seven-figure renovation of the Hotel Ciel, that’ll be completed by next summer,” said Andrew Kirtzman, one of three investors in the Fire Island Pines, “and that’s when we expect the wedding business to explode.”